And after three days and a half
When it was certain they were dead, and all hope of reviving was
over; see ( John 11:39 ) ; that is,
three years and a half:
the spirit of life from God entered into them;
this phrase is expressive of a resurrection the Jews frequently
call the general resurrection (hyyxt) , "a quickening", and have the very phrase here
used; for, speaking of the resurrection, they say F21,
(yyxd axwr) , "the spirit
of life" does not dwell but in the holy land. This resurrection
of the witnesses is not to be understood of a corporeal
resurrection; for there is no reason to believe that there will
be a resurrection of any particular saints until the general
resurrection, which will be at the personal coming of Christ, and
at the beginning of the thousand years, and after the sounding of
the seventh trumpet; whereas this will be before that, and
towards the close of the sixth trumpet: and besides, the death of
these witnesses is not corporeal, as has been observed: nor is a
spiritual resurrection from the death of sin to a life of grace
intended, which is owing to the Spirit of life from Christ; for
these witnesses were such who had been quickened, and raised in
this sense antecedent to their prophesying and killing; but a
civil resurrection of them, or a resurrection of them as
witnesses, when their spirits will revive, and they will take
heart and courage again to appear for Christ: and this may be
understood of the same individual persons that were silenced, or
of those that succeeded such that corporeally died in the war of
the beast, or during this interval; and so these witnesses may be
said to rise in them, they appearing in the same spirit they did;
just as John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elias:
and this will be owing to the Spirit of life from God entering
into them; which is said in allusion to the living soul of man,
which returns to God, and at the resurrection, whether particular
or general, comes from him, and reenters the body; and which also
is owing to the Spirit of God, by whom mortal bodies will be
quickened; and in allusion to the breathing on the dry bones in
Ezekiel's vision, ( Ezekiel
37:1-14 ) ; and the sense is, that the Spirit of God will
inspire these witnesses with fresh life and rigour, zeal and
resolution; so that though they have been so long silent,
lifeless, and dispirited, they shall now rise in high spirits,
and bravely exert themselves in the cause of Christ; and this
will not be by any worldly power and authority, or by any secular
arm, that shall encourage them, but by the Spirit of God, who
shall breathe upon them, and afresh quicken them, and fill them
with resolution and courage:
and they stood upon their feet;
in great numbers, like the army in Ezekiel's vision; and will
reassume their former station, and be in a position and a state
of readiness to serve the Lord, and to defend his truths, and
discharge their duty with boldness and courage, fearing the face
of none:
and great fear fell upon them which saw them;
in this posture; either on their enemies, who may fear that they
should be tormented with them again; that the things which they
had foretold concerning their ruin are now coming upon them; that
they shall be turned out of their places of profit, and lose all
their worldly advantages, and carnal pleasures now, and be
miserable to all eternity: or upon their friends, either their
false hearted ones, that would not succour them when in distress,
who may fear that God, whose finger they will see in this matter,
will by them resent their conduct towards them; or else their
real friends, who may be filled with reverence and awe of the
divine Majesty, as the church was upon the business of Ananias
and Sapphira, ( Acts 5:11 ) .